Pardee Seminar Highlights Climate Adaptation in South Asian Mega-Cities

At the Pardee Center lunchtime seminar on Feb. 25, architect and Metropolitan College Adjunct Professor Madhu Dutta-Koehler spoke of the need for urban planners to “look for synergies” between climate change adaptation opportunities and existing plans for urban development and improvements in the mega-cities of South Asia and elsewhere.

Dutta-Koehler was the featured speaker at the seminar sponsored by the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future titled “Climate Change and Contingent Adaptation: Strategies for South Asian Mega-Cities.”  More than 30 people filled the seminar room at the Initiative on Cities to hear Dutta-Koehler discuss her two-year research project that focused on how climate change adaptation measures were incorporated into urban planning programs in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Kolkata, India.

She cited the critical need for the mega-cities (cities with populations of 10 million or more) of South Asia to take steps to adapt to climate change. These cities are endangered by a “whole host of vulnerabilities” including rapid urbanization, weak government institutions, and severe resource constraints that hamper the ability to recover from disasters such as the severe floods that struck Bangladesh in 1989 and again in 1998, displacing 30 million people. She said more than 2 billion people are at serious risk from climate change in the Global South’s mega-cities, and noted water scarcity is likely to become a major problem.

Dutta-Koehler described case studies in Dhaka involving a large infrastructure improvement project that incorporated “minor tweaks to become an integrated flood protection project,” one which included raising the elevation of highways, upgrading storm drainage and sewer systems, upgradation and relocation of slums, and other environmental and infrastructural improvements.  A second program in Dhaka involved implementing climate change measures into significant upgrades to the city’s water system. Because that program was led by a “champion for adaptation,” changes were made that shifted the culture and management of the entire organization. As a result, the water authority was able to implement an effective water metering program that created a stable funding source, to reduce rapid depletion of groundwater that was tied to poor water quality issues, and to increase the effective utilization of surface water.

The Kolkata project involved a major effort to restore and connect an extensive area of wetlands that served to purify water, eliminating the need for construction of costly sewage treatment plants. This project also improved drainage and preserved flood plains, which reduced the impacts of flooding in the city.

Dutta-Koehler said the implications of her research are that urban planners should look for synergies between climate change adaptation opportunities — using what she called “climate adaptation filters” — and existing planning programs so that some adaptation methods may be easily incorporated into existing projects. This planning approach she calls “Contingent Adaptation” can help cities save resources while simultaneously fulfilling development and adaptation goals, particularly in the absence of  dedicated climate adaptation planning.

This strategy won’t solve entire problems, she said, but added “little steps can go a long way to decreasing vulnerability.”

The seminar was webcast and a video is available here.

This seminar was based on a short presentation Dutta-Koehler gave as part of a panel at a conference on urban Asia co-sponsored by the Pardee Center last fall. Other Pardee Center publications and events related to mega-cities:

Issues in Brief — Transportation in Mega-Cities: A local issue, a global question

2013 Annual Pardee Distinguished Lecture by Geoffrey West